That seemingly small distance could have meant life and death
for the congressional staffer injured in Saturday's shooting.

She's grateful to be alive. For Simon, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle
Giffords and district director Ron Barber, "if the bullets had been
a quarter of an inch one way or another, the outcomes would have
been different," she said Friday.

Simon is one of 13 wounded in the shooting that left six others
dead outside a northwest-side Safeway. Released from the hospital
Thursday, she spoke about her experience Friday.

Simon said she knows "it's nothing short of a miracle" that
she's left with pain, bruising and a bullet in her hip, but nothing
worse.

She also thinks about those who weren't spared, the six who lost
their lives when a gunman opened fire at one of Giffords' popular
"Congress on Your Corner" events.

Though she was shot twice, once in the chest - with the bullet
traveling to her hip - and once in the right wrist, Simon said
psychologically she's doing "pretty well given the circumstances."
That's because she has the support of her family, her faith
community, friends and Giffords' congressional and campaign
family.

She kept a sense of humor about the bullet that remains in her
hip, after it went through her abdomen and stopped in her
hamstring.

"That bullet's going to be my internal souvenir," she said.

The doctors are leaving the bullet there because it won't cause
any trouble, and removal surgery could be more risky, she said.

"It traveled all that way and didn't hit anything significant,"
she said.

Simon used to teach at the same middle school and high school
that suspected shooter Jared Lee Loughner attended.

She never met him, though, saying, "We walked the same halls for
four years."

"If there is an issue that I want to focus on more out of this,
it's the issue of helping educators and others to identify the
young people who are isolated and are suffering from mental health
issues," said Simon, a community outreach aide.

She talked about that issue with Dr. Richard Carmona and
President Obama, both of whom visited her in the hospital.

Last Saturday, "everything happened very quickly. I was one of
the first people hit after Gabby and Ron. I saw them shot, I was
aware that I was hit and I went down on the ground."

But stranger Bob Pagano made "all the difference" when he stayed
with her after she was shot, Simon said. The two met more formally
for the first time Friday.

Pagano said he ran out of the grocery store after he heard the
shots. That's when he saw Simon holding her chest, lying face-down
in front of the Safeway, about 15 feet from Giffords, who was being
helped by intern Daniel Hernandez. Pagano put his sweater under
Simon's head.

"I tried to comfort and care for her and be there for her," he
said. "I don't have emergency training, so that's all I could offer
her. ... Everybody who was there, in this area that morning was
doing everything in their power to help."

He said Simon told him she'd been shot in the chest, hip and
wrist and that she was in pain.

"She was very strong. She was telling me what to do. I was
telling her she was going to be fine," Pagano said. "She was
uncomfortable but entirely coherent."

Simon said she saw Giffords before she left the hospital. She
held the congresswoman's hand and received a squeeze in return.

"I knew that I could not leave the hospital without seeing her,"
Simon said. "It was very important to my healing."